• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

I 94

HarryWolper said:
Onesimus said:
He had great success with a CHR in Billings and had a good run with WZPL. He's an intelligent, creative thinker. Perhaps in my anger I was harsh in my statement, but I'll be damned if I apologize for being loyal to a friend.

I wish I-94 the best! Chris Wheat is a good man and I wish him good health.
Click to expand...

First off, Billings is smaller than Muncie in market size. And, I'm not sure his "good run" at ZPL was very successful--I believe that was a very low-rated period for Z.

I never suggested you should apologize for being loyal to a friend (in fact, it is a commendable quality). I was just disagreeing with the idea that Fritz is/was a good PD. He's not the worst ever, but far from the best. Again, though--I'd still take him over Carl Frye.

I also like Chris Wheat and wish I-94 well...though I think it will be a tough road if Cumulus doesn't get local talent or spend money to promote it.
Click to expand...
Carl Frye isnt the PD at the new I94. the PD has posted in this thread and is from WYZP in huntsville Alabama. Thus all the mentions of WYZP for in this thread. I know Carl Frye know his history of the Indy radio and 93.9 frequency and ratings along with the Bear's move from 104.5 and 93.9 and the fact that Z99.5 has more than 2 local shows
 
MikeStandardsFromIndiana said:
Carl Frye isnt the PD at the new I94. the PD has posted in this thread and is from WYZP in huntsville Alabama. Thus all the mentions of WYZP for in this thread. I know Carl Frye know his history of the Indy radio and 93.9 frequency and ratings along with the Bear's move from 104.5 and 93.9 and the fact that Z99.5 has more than 2 local shows
Click to expand...

True enough that WZPL has more than two local shows. However, one of their non-local shows is during afternoon drive, which is really dumb. Not only did they lose a good air talent in Kelly, but by replacing her with a syndicated show, they also lost good local presence--i.e. remotes, appearances, etc. Doing that for the nighttime daypart isn't as big an issue, but to do it in the second-most listened to part of the day really takes away from other money making opportunities.

There is a "hole" in the market where I-94 is trying to fit--more of a CHR than Hot AC WZPL, less rhythmic than Now. And if I-94 does have good, local-based talent, then that will help. But is the "hole" deep enough to be worth fitting in there? I mean, even if they position themselves well, can they get enough ratings--or, more importantly, agency buys--to make it worthwhile? Of course, Cumulus also needs to be willing to spend money on promoting it, or it has no chance.
 
If the PD is going to be doing an Air shift on I94 like it seems to be thus far more often than not i bet ya that will be voice tracked which is one less live shift they will especially going against Syndicated Seacrest on ZPL and Live show in Rayne on Now. they will probly be on Otto Mason from 7pm till morning drive. or some form of Syndication in the evening if there is a syndicated CHR show out there. so thats at least 3 local shows one of them on the Comp half the time. and its still to see what they do in Middays
 
HarryWolper said:
Well said. ZPL's over-reaction came from Roger Ingram wanting to "stick it" to WHHH, despite H only having about a third the ratings points at the time (TLC was getting hit much harder than Z). So Roger dumped London and brought back Gary Hoffman, who promptly ran ZPL into the toilet.

Before that, ZPL was regularly #1 in 18-34F and even 25-54F every few books...even after HHH came on. It took an arrogant, over-sensitive GM to destroy all of that almost instantly.
Click to expand...

BTW, anybody know Roger's whereabouts since he left WTTS a couple years ago? I had heard that he headed out West.
 
It's both hilarious and alarming to read how much incorrect information permeates this thread.

Mike alone could choke the servers at Snopes with all his erroneous "info."
 
Does anyone happen to know when and why WZPL evolved from CHR/Pop to Hot AC?

I know that the top 40 format lost dozens of stations starting in the late eighties after many of those stations copied KIIS/LA's horrendous overreaction (loading up on rhythmic product to try and reclaim the teens who'd abandoned KIIS for KPWR) to being flattened by Emmis's KPWR, which went from non-existent to #1 in less than one year.

Did anybody launch a CHR/Rhythmic station in Indy anytime between the late eighties and the arrival of WHHH which wound up doing to WZPL what KPWR did to KIIS in 1987---that is, swiped all or a hefty chunk of WZPL's teens, and eventually drove them out of the format for good?

I don't know if there's a hole in the market between WZPL (listed as a Modern AC by Arbitron on this website) and WNOU where I-94 could conceivably prosper, but given the national renaissance of top 40 radio over the past 2 1/2 to 3 years, Cumulus might get lucky.
 
WHHH began broadcasting in 1991 as an 80-90 station.

I believe WZPL began to head in a Hot AC direction in the late 1990s. They switched up the branding in '97 or '98 to match the musical change.
 
Onesimus said:
He had great success with a CHR in Billings and had a good run with WZPL. He's an intelligent, creative thinker. Perhaps in my anger I was harsh in my statement, but I'll be damned if I apologize for being loyal to a friend.

I wish I-94 the best! Chris Wheat is a good man and I wish him good health.
Click to expand...

You speak of Chris with inside knowledge.

When someone left the Clear Channel Coven on good terms, even if only to deliver pizzas, they were given a going away party and showered with gifts. Usually unclaimed call-in-winner swag....but, still, there were gifts.

If you dared leave to go to another station - you packed your file box quickly and left with an escort. A terse email was sent to co-workers from Chirs wishing you...."GOOD HEALTH".

As time passed, I realized when Chris wished "good health" it was really code for - "I hope you die in a grease fire."

Even tho I was wished - good health - it STILL makes me laugh.
 
After reading all these posts, I can see why radio is so bad now and no longer any fun for the listener or employee. We over-analyze the whole radio format now. Years ago, you hired a local guy that knew the city, he/she KNEW the heartbeat of the town, he/she understood what music worked in the market. Those were the best stations in town. As a kid growing up in South Bend our local CHR/top 40 was WRBR. Their TOP 40 was so much different than Chicago's WLS-AM signal that was able to penetrate our small town. So many songs that charted in Chicago never even were played on our local TOP 40, that's just the way it was. The music (disco, at the time) didn't have a mass appeal in our area and the programmers knew that. So they ran a more rock-edged Top 40 and it worked. Even when the competition of U-93 came along, they skewed the music to fit the market. Actually, if you look at some of the songs that "charted" nationwide...they didn't even penetrate our Market or even some of the Midwest's biggest CHR's. The demographics were different because of culture.

NOW....we have corporate Radio that has no clue how this works. And unfortunately the newer breed of programmers don't understand this concept. They figure...hey, it worked in Chicago so it MUST work here. NOT. Then we have people who post on here about how many recurrents or golds or this or that. My God, whatever happened to just playing some GOOD music that fit the market that just flowed regardless of it's age or category?

The spirit and soul of radio is gone as we know it. I-94 is a perfect example.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom